Before the Mast
by arrowsandroses
Summary: Monkey D. Rill thinks about boys a lot—and she's probably more terrified of talking to them than anything else. Her grandpa insists she marry a marine officer, maybe a vice admiral, while her older brother, Ace, declares that she's better off avoiding any mingling with pirates or marines. But no one's left happy when she falls for a man over ten years her senior. Smoker X OC


**Full summary**: Monkey D. Rill thinks about boys a lot—and she's probably more terrified of talking to them than failing her entrance exams. Her grandfather insists she marry a marine officer, maybe a vice admiral, while her older brother, Ace, declares that she's better off avoiding any mingling with pirates or marines. Luffy appropriately couldn't care less, but no one's left happy when she falls head over heels for a man over ten year her senior. [Smoker x OC]

* * *

Ace mapped her future right then, pausing only to scribble his declaration on the back of one of her study's graphs.

"Wait! Ace—"

"Now!" Ace interrupted, ignoring the frantic look as she reached for her graph and prayed his ink never spilled onto the front side. "Let I, Portgas D. Ace, warn every man in the sea: no pirate or lousy navy dog shall ever touch my baby sister."

"'Ear, 'ear," Luffy spat between bits of food.

Rill sighed and gently reached for her ruined document a second time.

"Not that I mind so much, but I don't think that leaves a lot of options for me," she pointed out.

Ace considered this, his hand relenting to her persistent tugs while he drummed his free fingers against his chin. "That does put a bit of a damper on you getting a boyfriend."

Rill hid her cheeks beneath her shirt as a hideous flare of red consumed them. "You're reading too much into this!" she insisted.

The fire-cursed pirate ignored her for several minutes, watching Luffy as he continued to feast furiously. Realizing he was also starving, he reached for a handful of grub and brought it to his mouth. Rill's cooking was a rare treat these days, directly timed with Ace's visits. If the Old Man took an extended assignment, sometimes she broke free from her books to cook up these hardened little cakes with delicious meats and curries beaten inside. Luffy loved those, but Ace craved her creative mix of sake and honey flowers. There was something else she added in, but since Dadan taught her the recipe, she refused to disclose it to either of them. The journey back home always dragged on with the added expense of his salivating mouth and a promise for scrumptious food.

Rill waited in her chair, willing her face to return to its pale colour. She thought frequently about boys, men, navy personnel, bankers, merchants, blacksmiths, political members, teachers, swordsmen, bounty hunters, and even, yes, _pirates_, but that's where her curiosities died. The thoughts were enough to quell any hormonal instinct to seek a partner, because truth told, she couldn't sit in the same room as a member of the opposite sex without bursting into a round of hiccups, and if Ace really thought any sort of man could find that tolerable, he surely sported a twisted view of his gender.

Singlehood. Singlehood worked well for her.

Perhaps the only one not deep in any thought was the youngest at the table. When Luffy's belly ached and his hands needed to stretch in order to reach his mouth, the younger boy decided he was finished. He rubbed his belly, grinning at his satisfied stomach and briefly pondered when he could eat again before the answer to Ace's debate randomly struck him.

"She can marry a fisherman?" he suggested uncaringly. If he got his way, Rill would never marry, and that way she could balance between her books and cooking for him.

His finger reached for his nose, ready to clear it before he realized his sister was watching. Hesitating, he turned his head to the side, hoping she wouldn't notice his poor display in manners 'cause all he wanted to do was get the gross stuff out.

"Luffy!" Ace exclaimed instead. The rubber boy shouted his surprise, removing his finger at once. "Good idea, kid. Riddle can marry a fisherman. Maybe a scholar, too, but I don't want ya dropping to death just 'cause he bored the life outta ya."

The two boys roared together, enjoying the comical image of a dried up Rill while the ladder reached for the empty plates lining the table. She smiled over their amusement, resisting the swelling in her stomach as her anxiety bubbled to the surface. Rill would marry no one, she declared for herself right then and there, and took the vandalized graph aboard her pile of dishes.

"You're worse than grandpa," she scolded on her way out.

"Better listen to me than him," he shouted after her. "You'd get fed up with whatever crappy officer and his by-the-book crap, anyway."

She wondered how much of his words pulled truth, and how much were simply meant to antagonize their grandfather's wishes. After setting the dishes in the sink—she decided she would wash them once Luffy went to bed and she could peacefully revise her lessons while scrubbing dirty cutlery—Rill examined her damaged graph, folded it in fours, and placed it away on her bookshelf.

It was all just silly banter to pass the time.


End file.
